Español por un día

A celebration of all things Spanish inspired and tested the skills of Year 11 students Yngve Jordan and Jonty Gallagher at the University of Canterbury Spanish Immersion Day on Tuesday 5 June.

Spanish is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world and is rapidly becoming one of the most popular for budding linguists to learn. Having a whole day thinking, speaking and learning in Spanish helped Yngve and Jonty realise the importance of language skills.

“In class we’re just learning to support our statements with reasons and learning new vocabulary for different situations,” says Jonty. “This was the first time we’d had to think and speak in Spanish all day. We could see what it would be like to travel in Spain or a Spanish-speaking country and how important the language is.”

“It was fun and educational,” says Yngve. “We met a lot of new people from other schools and it was fun trying to talk with them, as well as listening to the speakers. Inevitably we missed things, but it got easier finding key words and figuring it out.”

The day began with trainee teacher Alex Priest talking about her experience working as a teaching assistant in Madrid, then Spanish teachers from schools all over Christchurch discussed different aspects of Spanish culture, including festivals and traditions, food, music, songs and Latin dances – salsa, bachata, merengue and reggaeton.

Both Yngve and Jonty agree they are now keen to continue to develop their Spanish language skills and inspired to travel, to get out there and discover more about la vida española.